Cigar accumulator tray

ABSTRACT

A cigar accumulator tray has a design such that it can be bottom loaded adjacent one end where an entrance slot is provided for sidewise forced entrance of one cigar at a time under and past an axially aligned resilient roll positioned inside the tray adjacent the slot and thence upwardly along a stepped bottom wall.

United States Patent I I 72 1 Inventors Vernon Corbin Stant;

Jasper Dwight Caldwell. Richmond, Va.

211 App1.No. 820,597

[22] Filed Apr. 30. 1969 [45] Patented Jan. 26, 1971 [73] Assignee The American Tobacco Company New York, N.Y.

54 CIGAR ACCUMULATOR TRAY 4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S. Cl 232/1, 232/43.1 [5 l] Int. Cl 865d 85/12 [50] Field ol'Search ..232/1,43.l, 43.2, 43.3, 43.4

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,849,177 8/1958 Meyer 232/43.1 2,873,063 2/1959 Schweiter.... 232/43.1 2,968,419 1/1961 Youngman 232/43.1

Primary Examiner-Francis K. Zugel At10rneyPennie, Edmonds, Morton, Taylor and Adams ABSTRACT: A cigar accumulator tray has a design such that it can be bottom loaded adjacent one end where an entrance slot is provided for sidewise forced entrance of one cigar at a time under and past an axially aligned resilient roll positioned inside the tray adjacent the slot and thence upwardly along a stepped bottom wall.

PATENTEU JAN 2 6 l97l' SHEET 1 [IF 2 s r r g lll n" FIG. 1

lllllm v I U JASgRFR DWIGHT CALDWELL ATfO EYS CIGAR ACCUMULATOR TRAY This invention relates to cigar accumulators and, more particularly, to a tray wherein cigars can be accumulated through a bottom feed arrangement adjacent one end wall of the tray.

Cigar accumulator trays are used to Collect cigars at end stage in their production for conveyance to another stage. It is common to load such trays through their open top but it is difficult to control the movement of the cigars so as to prevent their bouncing or misdirection with resulting misalignment of the cigars in the tray.

We have now devised a cigar accumulator tray which is capable of being filled without any possibility of misalignment of the cigars. Pursuant to our invention, the accumulator tray comprises a bottom wall, sidewalls a front wall and a rear wall, the lower end of the front wall having a transverse slot of sufficient proportions to permit sidewise feeding of cigars individually therethrough. A resilient roll is axially aligned with said slot and is mounted within the tray positioned in a plane substantially below the top but above the bottom of the slot, and the bottom wall of the tray extends rearwardly from the bottom of said slot stepwise in at least two upwardly arcuate interconnected portions.

These and other novel features of the invention will be more readily understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of the accumulator tray and the feed device therefor;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation, partly in section, of the accumulator tray; and

FlG.-3 is an enlarged front elevation, partly in section, of the resilient roll.

The accumulator tray shown in H6. 1 is adapted to receive and accumulate cigars 5 from a discharge device for some stage in the production of cigars. Such a discharge device may comprise, for example, a fluted receiving drum 6 and a discharge belt 7 provided with flights 8. These flights discharge the cigars sidewise in front of a pusher bar 9 which is intermittently actuated to push onecigar at a time toward the accumulator tray, and the accumulator tray of our invention is adapted to receive and collect the discharged cigars.

The accumulator tray 10 of our invention comprises an open top box having a structural bottom panel 11, two sidewalls 12, a front wall 13 and a rear wall 14. The lower end of the front wall is provided with a transverse entrance slot 15 of sufficient proportions to permit the sidewise feeding of a cigar 5 from a discharge device such as that referred to hereinbefore. Inside the tray adjacent the entrance slot 15 is a resilient" roll 16. This roll can be made resilient," as the term is used herein and in the claims, by forming it of resilient material such as sponge rubber, or the like, or by mounting a roll of rigid material on a resilient axis which pennits vertical displacement of the roll such, for example, as by an axle formed of a coil spring 17 secured to the sidewalls 12 of the tray. in order to provide maximum flexibility for vertical movement of the resiliently mounted roll 16, we have provided both ends of the roll with a tapered countersink 18, but

it must be understood that other resilient mounting of the roll 16, or the combination of a resilient roll material and of a resilient mounting, can be used in the practice of the invention. The roll is mounted with its axis aligned with that of the entrance slot 15 and with its lower surface positioned in a plane below the top but above the bottom of the slot. In such a position, the roll 16 lies in the path of a cigar forced through the tray entrance slot 15, but its resilience permits the cigar to be pushed under and past the roll. Once past the roll, a cigar is held within the tray by the position ofthe roll.

As successive cigars are forced past the retaining roll 16, the preceding cigars are forced inwardly along the bottom of the tray. We have found that ifthe bottom of the tray is flat, there is a pronounced tendency for the cigars to jam on this level and thus be damaged. However, we have further found that if the lower portion of the tray is provided with a bottom wall 20 of specific configuration, the movement of cigars into the tray is facilitated to such an extent that a full load of cigars can be charged to the tray through its bottom loading slot 15 without damage to any of the cigars. This configuration is generally that of two or more upwardly arcuate portions 21a and 21b interconnected in stepwise fashion. Thus, the end of the first arcuate portion 21a adjacent the slot 15 is positioned in approximately the plane of the bottom of the slot, and as the bottom wall portion 210 progresses inwardly it slopes upwardly in an arc 22a. The extremity of this are is provided with a reverse curve so that it interconnects with the adjacent end of the second arcuate bottom wall portion 21b. This second bottom wall portion also slopes arcuately upwardly in a rearward portion 22b which advantageously terminates tangent to the vertical rear wall 14 of the tray. Thus, as the cigars are progressively forced into the bottom level of the tray, they tend to be raised by the first arcuate bottom wall portion 22a into an upper level, and their further progressive movement toward the rear of the tray causes them to move further upwardly and thence forwardly onto the top of other cigars closer to the entrance slot 15.

The front interior portion of the accumulator tray is provided with a guard 23 to protect the resilient roll 16 from interference by the pressure of cigars above it. As shown in FIG. 1, this guard is in the form of a plate or block mounted adjacent the inside of the front wall 13 of the tray and extends rearwardly past the top of the roll 16 and thence downwardly part way behind the roll.

it will be seen, accordingly, that the accumulator tray of our invention is capable of being loaded in such a manner that all cigars are delivered in axial alignment by the retaining resilient roll 16, and are further moved into the tray by the axially aligned cigars delivered through the charging slot so that all cigars in the tray remain in similar alignment throughout the entire filling of the tray.

We claim:

1. A cigar accumulator tray comprising a bottom wall, sidewalls, a front wall and a rear wall, the lower end of the front wall having a transverse slot of sufficient proportions to permit sidewise feeding of cigars individually therethrough, a resilient roll axially aligned with said slot and mounted within the tray adjacent said slot with the lower surface of the roll positioned in a plane substantially below the top but above the bottom of the slot, the bottom wall of the tray extending rearwardly from the bottom of said slot stepwise in at least two upwardly arcuate interconnected portions. 1

2. A cigar accumulator tray according to claim 1 in which the roll is formed of resilient material.

3. A cigar accumulator tray according to claim 1 in which the roll is mounted on an axis which is resiliently free to be displaced vertically.

4. A cigar accumulator tray according to claim 1 in which the roll axis comprises a coil spring secured to the two sidewalls of the tray. 

1. A cigar accumulator tray comprising a bottom wall, sidewalls, a front wall and a rear wall, the lower end of the front wall having a transverse slot of sufficient proportions to permit sidewise feeding of cigars individually therethrough, a resilient roll axially aligned with said slot and mounted within the tray adjacent said slot with the lower surface of the roll positioned in a plane substantially below the top but above the bottom of the slot, the bottom wall of the tray extending rearwardly from the bottom of said slot stepwise in at least two upwardly arcuate interconnected portions.
 2. A cigar accumulator tray according to claim 1 in which the roll is formed of resilient material.
 3. A cigar accumulator tray according to claim 1 in which the roll is mounted on an axis which is resiliently free To be displaced vertically.
 4. A cigar accumulator tray according to claim 1 in which the roll axis comprises a coil spring secured to the two sidewalls of the tray. 